Prisoner pleads guilty to setting 2012 fire on Round Lake Highway

Daily Telegram staff

Saturday

Apr 14, 2018 at 1:39 AM

A man serving time on a criminal sexual conduct charge admitted Wednesday to setting fire to his neighbor’s Round Lake Highway home in 2012.

Brandon James Farnsworth, 23, pleaded guilty before Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret M.S. Noe to one count of second-degree arson. He said he used matches, lighter fluid and hay to start the fire on Nov. 10, 2012, that damaged a residence at 9078 Round Lake Highway.

The fire was the subject of a Crime Stoppers of Lenawee County request for tips in March 2013.

That request said the fire was noticed at 11:50 p.m. by a passing motorist who called 911. Addison firefighters put out the fire. The house was vacant at the time. Michigan State Police fire investigators ruled the blaze an arson.

Noe scheduled sentencing for May 18. Farnsworth faces up to 20 years on this charge.

He is serving 40 to 60 years on two convictions for first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2013 in Jackson County, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records. He is incarcerated at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven.

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